Halo 5 is here

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Last night at midnight, Halo 5 launched. Will this be the last epic adventure for video gaming's mightiest champion? The Master Chief is back, but all the cockamamie advertising colors our hero as the bad guy.

I wish I could tell you if this game is any good! I've certainly been waiting a long time to play it! I purchased my Xbox One at launch, anticipating that Halo 5 would shortly follow. My Xbox has been around for two years now, with nary a Chief sighting. I could have played the Master Chief collection, but I heard poor reviews of its translation to the Xbox One.

The only game I've really enjoyed in the interim has been Destiny, which was developed by Halo creators Bungie. There is no small amount of question, in my online Destiny circles, around Halo killing Destiny. Destiny has also felt like Halo, without the amazing backstory and hero. Bungie is creating a backstory, and thus far it is pretty much a dud. The game play, and its mesh of FPS with MMO queues, like farming (sigh) are addictive but it is not Halo. I miss stickies. I long to gloriously dual wield the needler, or have a hell bent for leather Warthog chase! Will Halo 5 kill Destiny?

Large online teams of 12 players, mashed with an insane gameplay frame rate, and 4 player campaign mode all sound wonderful! I'm far more interested in the story, however. I have not read any Halo fiction, I have simply played the games, and the Master Chief is my ultimate video game hero. His relationship with his A.I. Cortana is legendary. I like him better than Max Payne, and 343 Studios, the developer Microsoft created to manage the franchise, is setting him up as the bad guy? Come on.

It is clear 343/MSFT want to introduce us to some new SPARTANs to carry the franchise forward, Jameson Locke and Nathan Fillion. Jameson Locke is a fictional character, Fillion I am not sure. It also seems Fillion can't decide between Destiny or Halo, he voices characters in both. Anyhow, I can only hope 343 gets the story right, because it looks like they're just going for an obvious 'Chief-gone-rogue then saves us all' story line. We all know what the Chief went through to save humanity 4 times already! I'd say trust him.

I'm still waiting for the game to install! I went with the CD/DVD-less version and selected a digital downloaded copy. I didn't get the email with my pre-order code until 10pm last night, and I guess the rush of folks installing tied me up! I'm still downloading and appear to have a few more hours wait.

I've heard a few early reports that the game is beautiful, and that the soundtrack brings you right back into the Halo Universe. If you already have installed Halo 5, please let us know in the BBS how you like it.

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